Edina Rugby Finishes Year Ranked 18th in Nation

The Edina U19 boys rugby club finished the 2011 season ranked 18th in the country, according to the Rugbymag.com’s final national high school poll.

, which finished the season 8-3 and took second place in the Minnesota Division I state championship game, was the lone Minnesota team to make the list. Southside Minneapolis, which 15-14 in the final seconds, did not qualify because it is a multi-school team.

Senior captain Jack Butterfield said it was the program’s first time in the top 20, and it was an unexplainable feeling to be part of the first Hornets team to be acknowledged nationally.

“It’s the next step for the team,” Butterfield said. “It’s just the type of thing you look for when you’re playing for a team like that.”

Edina is among good company in the rankings. Sacramento Jesuit (CA) won the national championship, and Butterfield said Jesuit is the gold standard for high school rugby in the United States.

He said he and other Edina players have participated in camps in California that include players from some of the top teams in the poll.

“If you could pick one place to start your rugby career in America, that’s the place you would start,” Butterfield said of Jesuit.

For Edina, Butterfield said the future is bright. Now that the Hornets have achieved national recognition, the squad has a chance to continue growing as a program and add younger athletes earlier in their careers.

“The team gets better as we perform better, more people get interested,” Butterfield said. “It’s the new recruits that make the team. It’s the kids that come in during ninth grade and stay for four years—they make the team better.”